London: An Indian-born owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant has been accused of spiking a woman’s drink with a date-rape drug at a private club.
Vikas Nath (63), has apparently admitted in court that he spiked the woman’s drink, as reported by the BBC. The incident allegedly happened at a Mayfair club on January 15, 2024. He is accused of adding gamma-butyrolactone, known as GBL, to the woman’s margarita at Annabel’s.
Alert club staff told the police that they spotted Nath use a straw to pour liquid from a vanilla extract bottle into the drink, it was mentioned before the Southwark Crown Court. The staff replaced the drink before it was consumed and alerted police.
The restauranteur faces charges of attempting to administer a substance with intent and possessing a Class B drug. While Nath accepted that he spiked the drink, he denied any sexual motive. He claimed that he wanted to help the woman relax.
During the hearing, the jury was also told that Nath had kept a motion-activated camera in a bedroom at his Knightsbridge home. He apparently admitted to using the device to secretly record sexual encounters, as reported by Mint.
The woman had invited Nath to Annabel’s, where she was a member. They went to the rooftop bar, where she ordered a cocktail before leaving the table to show two friends around the club, the Court was informed.
Two staff members noticed unusual behaviour while Nath was alone with the drinks. They saw him use a straw to take liquid from a small bottle and stealthily drip it into the woman’s drink, the prosecutors said.
Nath realised he had been discovered before the police arrived and went to the toilet, where he hid the bottle in the cistern. Police officers who reached the Mayfair club recovered the bottle. It contained traces of the date-rape drug. The police also seized two more bottles of GBL under his kitchen sink at home.
“Prior to the police arriving, Mr Nath clearly worked out that he had been rumbled,” the BBC quoted prosecutor Tim Clark KC as saying.
Nath, a millionaire businessman, is known to own restaurants in the UK and Spain, including two Michelin-starred joints.
It has been reported by the BBC that Nath told the police he had bought GBL as a cleaning fluid for a high-performance car. He claimed that a friend had told him it could also be mixed with alcohol to relax someone. He wasn’t aware that possessing GBL is illegal, Nath said.
Prosecutors, however, said that Nath had exchanged messages with a friend before the incident. The chat clearly showed he had wanted to have sex with the woman and was frustrated that it had not happened yet. The prosecution said his admission was unavoidable because the spiking was caught on CCTV.
“His acceptance is not surprising; he had little choice because the spiking was captured on CCTV at Annabel’s,” Clark has been quoted as saying.
“He tried to hide the evidence of what he had done, going to the lavatory and throwing that little bottle into the cistern, and it was floating about when police recovered it,” the prosecutor added.
Laws against spiking a drink are strict in the UK. A case like Nath’s falls under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which covers cases when someone spikes a victim to sexually assault them. If found guilty, he is likely to face a sentence of up to 10 years. The trial is ongoing.
